Last sunday was the 125th time the Varsity was rowed. The event takes place on the Amsterdam-Rijnkanaal near Houten. The Varsity is originally a student rowing race held between the ‘corpora’. Nowadays other student rowing clubs can also compete. The main event is the ‘oude vier’. Every succesfull rower’s career is said to be incomplete without a win at the Varsity, in spite of Olympic gold medals or World Championships…
The previous two years the Varsity ‘oude vier’ was won by Skadi, from Rotterdam, and they and Nereus, from Amsterdam, were again the favorites. The Skadi team consists of 3 members of the ‘Holland Acht’ who will compete in the Olympics this summer in Bejing. The fourth member was rejected from the Holland Acht, something most of us cannot put in their resume either.
Skadi won the race by controlling it from the start, and Nereus came in second but without a chance (and were disqualified for taking the wrong gate). The fun part for the spectators is the swimming of the fans to the winning boat, wearing nothing but a club tie (which is considered not being naked). The water was about 8 degrees Celsius…
Following are some photo’s, also of other finals that day.
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